Norton AntiVirus 2003

The new features in the latest anti-virus release from Symantec is the scanning and removal of viruses that may come through IMs like MSN, AOL and Yahoo. Plus, it uses a heuristics-based worm-blocking technology, which detects worms like Nimda and prevents them from spreading by scanning all outgoing mail. This works fine and immediately detects any e-mail with Nimda. The software also keeps a watch for malicious script-based viruses like the love bug and Anna Kournikova, and, of course, scans all incoming/outgoing mail for any other virus. It offers protection against ActiveX and Java applets, and there’s a plug-in for MS Office to protect files there. 

The software works on all common Windows desktop OSs till XP. It has an improved interface that’s easier to navigate. Besides residing in the system tray, it can also be launched from the right-click menu. This let’s you quickly scan specific files for viruses. There are no issues in performance and the anti-virus guards all virus entry points on a PC. It managed to detect all viruses that we threw at it, including those that were hidden inside zip files. 

Like most anti-virus software, Norton AntiVirus 2003 provides free virus updates for one year. However, at Rs 2,025, it’s expensive compared to other anti-virus software like McAfee VirusScan 7, which have additional feature like a desktop firewall and Palm support. 

Sanjay Majumder